Thursday, September 11, 2014

All the tomatoes under fleece! Two five-hundred foot rows!Thanks for pal Deb who came and helped!

The last thirty six hours, for us, have been all about frost! Wednesday night had a possibility (although I don't think it happened) and tonight's forecast low of -2 Celsius ( about 29 F.) will absolutely do some damage. Wednesday afternoon we put aside soap making and barn cleaning and a few other chores to cover, protect and harvest everything we could! The summer squash will not make it through temperatures below freezing so we took everything we could find. Today's CSA families will get a handful of the delightful wee baby summer squash and free choice of some larger green and yellow zucchini. We saved enough big ones for Tuesday's families, because they will hold well. And we donated a bunch to Samaritan House. We had to make hard decisions today: dig potatoes or keep harvesting tender veggies? The tender veggies won out, so there are no potatoes for CSA today!

The cucumbers will probably not survive also. We have covered the Lemon Ball and part of one patch of slicing cukes but the rest will be left to fend for themselves. The thing is, when frost comes, is that we only have so much stuff to cover stuff with! And our priority: the tomatoes and peppers. It is unbelievable to us that our CSA families have not yet gotten a ripe tomato! And it's almost the middle of September! So we've picked some that were showing some colour and have 'tucked in' the rest!

Many of you will still have larger sizes of summer squash and here comes the winter squash! All are fabulous stuffed - here's a link with a myriad of stuffing recipes! We've taken the first of the Spaghetti squash today, and it and vegetable marrow, as well as large sizes of zucchini and Patty Pan are my favourite for stuffing. The sweeter winter squash, such as Kabocha and Acorn, are lovely with a fruit stuffing. Simple, easy and looks impressive on the plate!

It's 9:30 PM and I'm just finishing the blog post. After getting home from CSA we've had a quick bite to eat, put the goats and chickens to bed, fed the dogs and cats, then picked some crab apples for some friends that want them but can't seem to get over here to pick their own. It was getting too dark to even see the crab apples, so we've unloaded the CSA crates from the truck, checked all our frost protection and covered a few more things and there is nothing else we can do. It is what it is - and we'll find out tomorrow just what has transpired!

1 comment:

HI so long since I read your blog. I have nearly given up on mine since it is so easy to do Facebook with pics and connect with many more people. Glad you are getting a crop. We had the worst season for the garden but part of it was late planting! Frost did the vines in last night so clean up is in order. All the best!

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Down at Aagaard Farms we are busy planting, growing and tending gardens, chickens, goats, pigs and more! We sell direct to our customers through a Community Supported Agriculture program for families who don't have time or space to grow their own produce.
We practice sustainable growing using organic practices. Our desire is to bring fresh, naturally good food from our farm to your table. We are excited to share what's happening on the farm ... here on THE VINE!